Derek Jeter went 2-for-4 Tuesday night against the Oakland Athletics with a pair of singles, and now has 2,983 base hits in his career. Jeter is 17 hits away from becoming the first player to record 3,000 hits as a New York Yankee.
Jeter is now hitting .264 this season. The Yankee shortstop also scored three runs Tuesday night, highlighting another aspect of his game that sometimes goes unnoticed. Jeter has scored more than 100 runs in 13 seasons, and his total of 1,718 runs scored is third on the franchise's all-time list behind Babe Ruth (1,959) and Lou Gehrig (1,888). So, this looks like another Yankee record within Jeter's reach before his career comes to a close.
Tuesday night was the 42nd game in which Jeter has been the Yankees leadoff hitter this season. He has reached base safely in his first at-bat 21 of those times this season.
"That’s giving your team an opportunity to score in the first inning, so I think he’s playing pretty well," manager Joe Girardi said.